According to Webster's, a mentor is one who, "teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person." I was extremely blessed to have had several great mentors in my life. Each and every one of them contributed in some way to my 50 plus years as a broadcast journalist and, while I had several wonderful people who I call "mentors," I have narrowed it down to three. They are all three deceased but I am certain they all knew what they meant to me before they passed away.
Monte Hale - They named the basketball arena at Middle Tennessee State University after Monte several years ago.
He spent 22 years as the "Voice of the Blue Raiders" before passing away from cancer in 1981. Monte died much too early at the age of 42 but he died courageously after fighting the disease for several years. He had part of his tongue removed many years before he died and, while that would signal a curtain call for most every other announcer, Monte fought back. He went to speech therapists and worked tremendously hard to be able to speak with just a portion of his tongue. He succeeded and, when he returned to the microphone, he sounded as good as ever.
As a junior at MTSU, I was hired as the sports director at WMOT-FM, the campus radio station. The station would serve as the flagship station for the brand new "Blue Raider Sports Network" and I was assigned to join Monte on the broadcasts as a color analyst. Monte had never really worked with an analyst before and he wasn't very happy to be working with a basically inexperienced college junior in 1972 but he did. We worked so well together that he even hired me to do some high school play-by-play while I remained in Murfreesboro. I was a pall bearer at his funeral and considered him to be one of my truly great friends and mentors.
Bill Nash - "Nasty" was also a wonderful friend who always had a knack for keeping my head on straight. I worked with Bill for just a year and a half at WDOD radio in Chattanooga but I learned so much from him, especially how to treat people. He always hated to fire someone and likely fired fewer radio personnel than any other manager in town. We had a lot in common and hit it off from the very beginning. We were both Southern boys who loved to fish and be outdoors as well as lovers of country and bluegrass music. Working at WDOD for Bill Nash was more like going to a second home with a second family rather than going to work each day. Everyone loved everyone else and we spent a lot of time outside work with each other. I made many great friends at WDOD, some I even consider to be great friends to this day.
Bill spent more than 20 years as the "Voice of the Mocs" on radio and was one of the best announcers I ever heard. He was also the best general manager I ever worked for as well and he's the person who introduced me to my next great mentor. Bill passed away at the age of 62 in 1998. There are still several of us out there who will always be "Nash's boys."
John Ward - I spent more time around John Ward than anyone else. I consider him a great friend and perhaps the best of all my mentors. John spent 30 years behind the Mic as the "Voice of the Vols." His tenure was longer than that when you consider he did basketball for several years before switching to football and basketball in 1968. He was the consummate professional, whether on the air or in person. I have more John Ward stories than I could possibly tell in an entire day but since this column is about mentors, I'll tell you about the time I asked John to critique a few of my play-by-play tapes.
A lot of people in his line of work would have either said no or found an excuse to politely decline, but not Mr. Ward. He invited me to bring my tapes to Knoxville where he met me at the Vol Network offices. He spent more than three hours looking at tapes with me, and offering suggestions to make my broadcasts better. He was always complimentary of my work and, when I left the Vol Network that afternoon, I felt like a million dollars. I was very satisfied and thankful that John Ward had taken that time to critique my work.
A few days later I received a four-page typed critique of my work from John. This was totally unexpected but it made it so much more important to me that he had taken several hours out of his busy schedule to watch the tapes with me, then spend several more hours putting things in writing. A wonderful man whom I love dearly and always will. John passed away in June of 2018 at the age of 88.
Being a strong mentor is something not everyone can do but it takes a willingness to serve others to begin with. I was so fortunate to have the three men mentioned above as well as several others. I am also fortunate that I am also considered to be a mentor to some other very successful people.